The AP’s David Bauder profiles MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, and reveals a surprising fact: NBC News bigwigs agreed to let the “Morning Joe” team out of their contract so they could go to CBS.
Both hosts were intrigued at the thought of reaching a bigger audience at CBS, and their producer, Chris Licht, ultimately jumped. Brzezinski, a former CBS News reporter, wondered if they’d have the same freedom.
Then Steve Burke, chief executive officer of NBC Universal, called Scarborough upstairs, wondering why he was being asked to approve giving away a show he and his friends watched every day. He urged them to stay, that things will work out, and it would be the best decision they’d ever made.
“He was right,” Scarborough said. “Because we get to do everything we want here.”